Dear Users... (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people)

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malbui said:
Seriously, who else remembers having a 486 running Windows 3.1 on DOS 6.22 and having boot menus allowing the machine to boot with the settings necessary to play different games? Many configurations because every freaking game was different.
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This one should be posted by the support guy at the game company, dealing with me, when I was just a (l)user back then. I bought a game for my 386 with a 10 MB HDD. The game required over 15 MB of space. I ran doublespace, but still wasn't able to install the game. I actually called the company to complain. To the rep's credit, he didn't laugh in my face, but patiently explained how compression worked. :)

My more spectacular fail was trying to use DOS 5 version of Laplink to connect a laptop. My system had a 25-pin "serial" port, but it was the wrong gender. You all see where this is going, right? I bought a gender bender at Radio Shack, and proceeded to blow up my motherboard!
 
Darat said:
Duh, I've never thought of doing that....
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If anyone is writing SQL in a tool that doesn't support column paste, I'd be shocked.

(Try holding down the Alt key, then clicking and dragging inside your favourite editor/development environment) you should be able to draw a column any size you like between 0 and some very large number of characters and then paste into that column.)

Even Notepad++ has column paste.

So formulating the query with concatenate in Excel is just wasting your time.
 
novaphile said:
If anyone is writing SQL in a tool that doesn't support column paste, I'd be shocked.

(Try holding down the Alt key, then clicking and dragging inside your favourite editor/development environment) you should be able to draw a column any size you like between 0 and some very large number of characters and then paste into that column.)

Even Notepad++ has column paste.

So formulating the query with concatenate in Excel is just wasting your time.
Click to expand...

It's not to overcome a pasting problem, it's to insert formatting where there is none. If you have six thousand items listed like this:

a112
32g
249gg
xx9239
sldkj01

and need them to be in a SQL query's "IN" bit you need quotes around them. Just pasting the column in there isn't going to do that. And if you want them in an insert statement you'll need parentheses and quotes around each term, and a comma between them. I do such things this way in Excel:

=concatenate("('",A2,"'),") then drag the formula down. My list in the new column now looks like this:

('a112'),
('32g'),
('249gg'),
('xx9239'),
('sldkj01'),

Paste into your editor and delete the last comma.

I'm usually getting these values in Excel to begin with so it's not like I'm not already there. I'd rather do the additional formatting with one formula and one click then paste then get all the values into my editor and then have to fuss with the formatting and adding commas, etc.
 
TragicMonkey said:
It's not to overcome a pasting problem, it's to insert formatting where there is none. If you have six thousand items listed like this:

a112
32g
249gg
xx9239
sldkj01

and need them to be in a SQL query's "IN" bit you need quotes around them. Just pasting the column in there isn't going to do that. And if you want them in an insert statement you'll need parentheses and quotes around each term, and a comma between them. I do such things this way in Excel:

=concatenate("('",A2,"'),") then drag the formula down. My list in the new column now looks like this:

('a112'),
('32g'),
('249gg'),
('xx9239'),
('sldkj01'),

Paste into your editor and delete the last comma.

I'm usually getting these values in Excel to begin with so it's not like I'm not already there. I'd rather do the additional formatting with one formula and one click then paste then get all the values into my editor and then have to fuss with the formatting and adding commas, etc.
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Someone else who doesn't know how column paste works.

Select Alt+drag the mouse to draw a vertical line, type (', watch in amazement as it appears in every single row.

Do the same at the back of each one.

Can be completed faster than you can open Excel, never mind futsing around inside Excel.
 
novaphile said:
Someone else who doesn't know how column paste works.

Select Alt+drag the mouse to draw a vertical line, type (', watch in amazement as it appears in every single row.

Do the same at the back of each one.

Can be completed faster than you can open Excel, never mind futsing around inside Excel.
Click to expand...

1) He would have had to open Excel to get the values to copy to
2) Which editor?
 
novaphile said:
Someone else who doesn't know how column paste works.

Select Alt+drag the mouse to draw a vertical line, type (', watch in amazement as it appears in every single row.

Do the same at the back of each one.

Can be completed faster than you can open Excel, never mind futsing around inside Excel.
Click to expand...

See, that's the thing about cat skinning. Everyone has their own ways of doing things, and will select tools based on familiarity and level of comfort. Which generally results in the best productivity for them.

'Frinstance, even though Microsoft has done their utmost to downplay the Control Panel, unless it's completely removed from the OS, it will always be the first place I go for those functions. I only use the Win10 Settings applets for things that are no longer available via the Control Panel, such as updates. It's possible that I'm wasting a few seconds each time I go to the CP, but I'd rather jump right to the tools I know than force myself to learn how to do the same task a different way.

As a network manager, I barely touch Office apps, so I only know the basics. But I'm often asked how to do such and such task with them. Sometimes, I have some idea of where they can click to find the tools they need, but that's it. It usually ends up with me suggesting they ask one of their coworkers who know those apps way better than I do. So I have a lot of respect for people like TM who are fluent there.

And I think this is the first time I've ever seen anyone use a Yiddish word with the British/Australian spelling, using an "s" instead of a "z"! :)
 
Darat said:
1) He would have had to open Excel to get the values to copy to
2) Which editor?
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As I said earlier, I'd be surprised if it is not supported in all editors, DEs.

It is certainly present in SSMS (the microsoft SQL editor) and Notepad++ (a free editor for Microsoft environments).

In visual studio it's Shft+Alt...

My general rule of thumb, is that any database work being performed in Excel is a case of "you're doing it wrong".

Excel is famous for silently 'incorrecting' peoples' data.

Whatever editor anyone is using, find out how to use 'column mode', this will save a huge amount of time.

:)
 
novaphile said:
Someone else who doesn't know how column paste works.

Select Alt+drag the mouse to draw a vertical line, type (', watch in amazement as it appears in every single row.

Do the same at the back of each one.

Can be completed faster than you can open Excel, never mind futsing around inside Excel.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure there are ways to say such things without being condescending. As it happens there are several reasons why I do what I do the way I do it, and not all of them are because I'm stupid. But I shan't waste your valuable time any further: surely with a mighty intellect such as yours you should be out solving crimes. Go! Go! For the good of the city!
 
novaphile said:
As I said earlier, I'd be surprised if it is not supported in all editors, DEs.

It is certainly present in SSMS (the microsoft SQL editor) and Notepad++ (a free editor for Microsoft environments).

In visual studio it's Shft+Alt...

My general rule of thumb, is that any database work being performed in Excel is a case of "you're doing it wrong".

Excel is famous for silently 'incorrecting' peoples' data.

Whatever editor anyone is using, find out how to use 'column mode', this will save a huge amount of time.

:)
Click to expand...
I’m pretty sure that neither vi nor emacs have such a mode.
 
malbui said:
Seriously, who else remembers having a 486 running Windows 3.1 on DOS 6.22 and having boot menus allowing the machine to boot with the settings necessary to play different games? Many configurations because every freaking game was different.
Click to expand...

I had a couple games where finding enough low memory was a major problem, but I put in the effort up front to produce a standard configuration with as much low memory as possible and it worked for nearly everything. I think I had one game where I would load DOS from a floppy because I didn't have room to get a mouse driver loaded and the game had it's own mouse support.
 
zooterkin said:
I’m pretty sure that neither vi nor emacs have such a mode.
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Are you joking?

vi:

Ctrl + V to go into column mode.
Select the columns and rows where you want to enter your text.
Shift + i to go into insert mode in column mode.
Type in the text you want to enter. Dont be discouraged by the fact that only the first row is changed.
Esc to apply your change (or alternately Ctrl+c)

In Emacs it's either CUA-mode or the C-SPC method.
 
It's even in gedit, but you need to enable the multi-edit plugin, which is distributed with gedit and turn it on within your document.

Slightly counter intuitive in gedit.

1. Enable multi-edit mode
2. Use the mouse to define the column by:
(a) clicking at the top left hand corner;
(b) dragging to the bottom right hand corner; and
(c) pressing the enter key.

(Ignore what is highlighted before you hit enter, you'll see your intended 'column' after hitting enter)

Get out of column mode by clicking outside the column.

I didn't expect to find it in gedit...
 
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novaphile said:
Are you joking?

vi:

Ctrl + V to go into column mode. Select the columns and rows where you want to enter your text.
Shift + i to go into insert mode in column mode.
Type in the text you want to enter. Dont be discouraged by the fact that only the first row is changed.
Esc to apply your change (or alternately Ctrl+c)

In Emacs it's either CUA-mode or the C-SPC method.
Click to expand...

I've been using vi/vim for years and I'm not sure if I've seen that before. I think I have, but probably forgot about it over time.

What's that "emacs" thing you mentioned? :p
 
novaphile said:
Are you joking?

vi:

Ctrl + V to go into column mode. Select the columns and rows where you want to enter your text.
Shift + i to go into insert mode in column mode.
Type in the text you want to enter. Dont be discouraged by the fact that only the first row is changed.
Esc to apply your change (or alternately Ctrl+c)

In Emacs it's either CUA-mode or the C-SPC method.
Click to expand...

Reference, please? The only Control-V in ex/vi that I know of is to quote the next character so it’s entered literally, not taken as a command to the editor.


ETA: Are you perhaps talking about vim, rather than vi?
 
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zooterkin said:
Reference, please? The only Control-V in ex/vi that I know of is to quote the next character so it’s entered literally, not taken as a command to the editor.


ETA: Are you perhaps talking about vim, rather than vi?
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I don't have vi installed, but everything I can see on the net points to that set of commands.
There is some chat about running vi under windows which relies on users using alternatives to the Ctrl+V command.
 
novaphile said:
I don't have vi installed, but everything I can see on the net points to that set of commands.
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Confirmation bias, or a consequence of what you're searching on. ;) You're finding vim documentation. This lists the block select as a new feature of vim. I used to read UNIX man pages for fun, and I used vi a lot, I'm pretty sure I would have noticed that such a feature existed even if I'd never used it.

Anyway, the feature might be nice to have, but you can do the same thing using regular expressions.

I'm happy to concede regarding emacs, since I was never a power user (I mostly used it for its colour highlighting features, and used the vi key commands).

There is some chat about running vi under windows which relies on users using alternatives to the Ctrl+V command.
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That's not really relevant, as Ctrl-V is used in vi, as I mentioned, for escaping characters.
 
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